Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Review of The Hit

Book #17: The Hit, by David Baldacci. Unabridged
audio.

Will Robie was one of Baldacci’s more interesting recent
character creations. Introduced in The Innocent (reviewed here), Robie is one
of US government’s leading assassins. Perhaps only one other hitman can match
his skills – Jessica Reel. It appears that Reel has gone rogue, and Robie has
been tasked to dispatch of her. But there might be more to Reel’s supposed
betrayal than meets the eye. Perhaps she discovered that the greatest threat to
American security is right in the middle of her intelligence services.

The cat-and-mouse game that Robie and Reel engage in here is
thrilling, and their hesitance to trust each other is very reasonable. That
slowness to trust also leads to some very compelling and exciting scenes. The
depth of the conspiracy (and the players) are revealed slowly, and this tension
is a strength of the novel. Readers spend much of the novel in the same state
of confusion as the main characters, again adding to sense of tension.

Two of the characters introduced in The Innocent appear here,
as well, although neither is a main character. The series is about Robie, and
Baldacci spends the most effort developing his character. I enjoyed the book
thoroughly, and look forward to Baldacci writing future books about Robie and
his supporting characters.

As always, the production elements of this audiobook were
excellent, with both Ron McClarty and Orlagh Cassidy turning in excellent vocal
performances.